Biosignal transmitter, biosignal receiver, and method of transmitting and receiving biosignal

ABSTRACT

Technology for transmitting and receiving a biosignal based on a pattern related to the biosignal and a feature point included in the biosignal. A biosignal transmitter includes a biosignal obtaining unit configured to obtain a biosignal comprising a plurality of unit signals, a parsing unit configured to parse the biosignal to extract a first unit signal of the plurality of unit signals, a pattern obtaining unit configured to obtain a pattern related to the biosignal based on the first unit signal, and a transmitting unit configured to transmit information related to a feature point of the first unit signal based on the first unit signal and the pattern.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 USC 119(a) of Korean PatentApplication No. 10-2012-0127417 filed on Nov. 12, 2012, in the KoreanIntellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The following description relates to a biosignal transmitter, abiosignal receiver, a method of transmitting and receiving a biosignal,and technology for transmitting and receiving a biosignal based on afeature point included in the biosignal and a pattern related to thebiosignal.

2. Description of Related Art

With an increasing level of interest in ubiquitous healthcare(U-healthcare), new technologies for monitoring and analyzing a vitalsignal in a daily life are being developed. Various appliedtechnologies, for example, an electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement deviceusing a fibrous electrode, a wrist band type or ring type heart ratedetecting module, a chest band type or glove type heart rate detector,are being attempted.

Such devices may be provided in a wearable form, and thus should havesuper-light and super-small characteristics for a user's convenience.

SUMMARY

In one general aspect, a biosignal transmitter includes a biosignalobtaining unit configured to obtain a biosignal including a plurality ofunit signals; a parsing unit configured to parse the biosignal toextract a first unit signal of the plurality of unit signals; a patternobtaining unit configured to obtain a pattern related to the biosignalbased on the first unit signal; and a transmitting unit configured totransmit information related to a feature point of the first unit signalbased on the first unit signal and the pattern.

The parsing unit may be further configured to extract the first unitsignal by detecting respective peaks of the plurality of unit signals,and parsing the biosignal based on positions of the peaks.

The pattern obtaining unit may include a determining unit configured todetermine whether the pattern is generated based on the first unitsignal; an obtaining unit configured to obtain the pattern in responseto a determination that the pattern is generated; and a generating unitconfigured to generate the pattern in response to the determining unitdetermining that that the pattern is yet to be generated.

The determining unit may be further configured to obtain a first patternstored in a storage space provided in advance; determine whether thefirst pattern corresponds to a waveform of the first unit signal; anddetermine that the pattern is generated in response to the determiningunit determining that the first pattern corresponds to the waveform ofthe first unit signal; and the obtaining unit may be further configuredto obtain the first pattern as the pattern.

The generating unit may be further configured to receive a predeterminednumber of unit signals from the parsing unit; and calculate an averageof the predetermined number of the unit signals to generate the pattern.

The transmitting unit may be further configured to calculate acorrelation between the first unit signal and the pattern; extract thefeature point in response to the correlation being greater than or equalto a predetermined threshold value; and transmit the information relatedto the feature point.

The transmitting unit may be further configured to transmit the firstunit signal in response to the correlation being lower than thepredetermined threshold value.

The transmitting unit may be further configured to transmit the patternin response to the pattern being newly generated by the patternobtaining unit to obtain the pattern.

The information related to the feature point may include an amplitudeand a position of a peak in the first unit signal.

The biosignal may have a periodicity, the plurality of unit signals mayinclude the first unit signal and a second unit signal, and a waveformof the first unit signal and a waveform of the second unit signal may beclassified as an identical pattern.

The biosignal may include an electrocardiogram (ECG), and the patternmay depend on a position of an electrode configured to measure the ECG.

In another general aspect, a biosignal receiver includes a receivingunit configured to receive a reception signal related to a biosignalincluding a plurality of unit signals; a determining unit configured todetermine a type of the reception signal; a pattern obtaining unitconfigured to obtain a pattern related to the biosignal from a storagespace provided in advance in response to the determining unitdetermining that the type of the reception signal is a first type ofreception signal; and a unit signal reconstructing unit configured toreconstruct a first unit signal of the plurality of unit signals basedon the pattern and information related to a feature point of the firstunit, signal; and the reception signal determined to be the first typeof reception signal may include the information related to the featurepoint of the first unit signal.

The biosignal receiver may further include a pattern storing unitconfigured to store the pattern related to the biosignal in the storagespace in response to the determining unit determining that the type ofthe reception signal is a second type of reception signal; and thereception signal determined to be the second type of reception signalmay include the pattern related to the biosignal.

The biosignal receiver may further include a unit signal obtaining unitconfigured to obtain a second unit signal of the plurality of unitsignals in response to the determining unit determining that the type ofthe reception signal is a third type of reception signal; and thereception signal determined to be the third type of reception signal mayinclude the second unit signal.

The biosignal receiver may further include a biosignal reconstructingunit configured to reconstruct the biosignal based on the first unitsignal and the second unit signal.

In another general aspect, a biosignal transmitting method oftransmitting a transmission signal related to a biosignal including aplurality of unit signals includes obtaining the biosignal; parsing thebiosignal to extract a first unit signal of the plurality of unitsignals; obtaining a pattern related to the biosignal based on the firstunit signal; and transmitting information related to a feature point ofthe first unit signal based on the first unit signal and the pattern.

The obtaining of the pattern may include determining whether the patternis generated; obtaining the pattern in response to a result of thedetermining being that the pattern is generated; and generating thepattern in response to a result of the determining being that thepattern is yet to be generated.

The transmitting may include calculating a correlation between the firstunit signal and the pattern; and extracting the feature point inresponse to the correlation being greater than or equal to apredetermined threshold value.

The transmitting may include transmitting the first unit signal inresponse to the correlation being lower than the predetermined thresholdvalue; and transmitting the pattern in response to the pattern beingnewly generated to obtain the pattern in the obtaining of the pattern.

In another general aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium stores a program for controlling a computer to perform the methoddescribed above.

In another general aspect, a biosignal receiving method of receiving areception signal related to a biosignal including a plurality of unitsignals includes receiving the reception signal; determining a type ofthe reception signal; obtaining a pattern related to the biosignal froma storage space provided in advance in response to a result of thedetermining being that the type of the reception signal is a first typeof reception signal; and reconstructing a first unit signal of theplurality of unit signals based on the pattern and information relatedto a feature point of the first unit signal; and the reception signaldetermined to be the first type of reception signal may include theinformation related to the feature point of the first unit signal.

The method may further include storing the pattern related to thebiosignal in the storage space in response to a result of thedetermining being that the type of the reception signal is a second typeof reception signal; and obtaining a second unit signal of the pluralityof unit signals in response to a result of the determining being thatthe type of the reception signal is a third type of reception signal;the reception signal determined to be the second type of receptionsignal may include the pattern related to the biosignal; and thereception signal determined to be the third type of reception signal mayinclude the second unit signal.

The method may further include reconstructing the biosignal based on thefirst unit signal and the second unit signal.

In another general aspect, a biosignal transmitting method includesextracting a signal from a biosignal; obtaining a biosignal patternbased on the signal; determining a similarity between the signal and thebiosignal pattern; obtaining information related to the signal based onthe signal and the biosignal pattern and transmitting the informationrelated to the signal in response to the similarity being greater than apredetermined threshold; and transmitting the signal in response to thesimilarity being less than the predetermined threshold.

The transmitting of the information related to the signal may requiretransmitting a smaller amount of data than the transmitting of thesignal.

The obtaining of the biosignal pattern may include determining whetherthe signal corresponds to a predetermined biosignal pattern; obtainingthe predetermined biosignal pattern as the obtained biosignal pattern inresponse to a result of the determining being that the signalcorresponds to the predetermined biosignal pattern; and generating a newbiosignal pattern as the obtained biosignal pattern in response to aresult of the determining being that the signal does not correspond tothe predetermined biosignal pattern; and the method may further includetransmitting the new biosignal pattern.

Other features and aspects will be apparent from the following detaileddescription, the drawings, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a biosignaltransmitter.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation ofa parsing unit.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation ofa pattern obtaining unit.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation ofa transmitting unit.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a biosignalreceiver.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation of abiosignal receiver.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description is provided to assist the reader ingaining a comprehensive understanding of the methods, apparatuses,and/or systems described herein. However, various changes,modifications, and equivalents of the methods, apparatuses, and/orsystems described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill inthe art. The sequences of operations described are merely examples, andare not limited to those set forth herein, but may be changed as will beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, with the exception ofoperations necessarily occurring in a certain order. Also, descriptionof functions and constructions that are well known to one of ordinaryskill in the art may be omitted for increased clarity and conciseness.

Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, the same referencenumerals refer to the same elements. The drawings may not be to scale,and the relative size, proportions, and depiction of elements in thedrawings may be exaggerated for clarity, illustration, and convenience.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a biosignaltransmitter 100. Referring to FIG. 1, the biosignal transmitter 100includes a biosignal obtaining unit 110, a parsing unit 120, a patternobtaining unit 130, and a transmitting unit 140.

The biosignal obtaining unit 110 obtains a biosignal including aplurality of unit signals. The biosignal may be a signal having aperiodicity, and may include, for example, an electrocardiogram (ECG),or other signal having a periodicity. The biosignal may include a signalhaving a predetermined pattern repeated periodically. For example, thebiosignal may include a first unit signal and a second unit signal. Awaveform of the first unit signal and a waveform of the second unitsignal may be classified as an identical pattern.

The biosignal obtaining unit 110 may obtain the biosignal using variousschemes. For example, the biosignal obtaining unit 110 may measure abiosignal using a sensor included in the biosignal transmitter 100.Also, the biosignal obtaining unit 110 may obtain a biosignal byreceiving a sensing result measured by a sensor positioned remotely in awired or wireless manner.

The parsing unit 120 parses the biosignal to extract the first unitsignal included in the plurality of unit signals. The parsing unit 120may parse the biosignal based on a period of the biosignal, therebyextracting the plurality of unit signals. The parsing unit 120 maycalculate information related to the period of the biosignal based onrespective peaks included in the plurality of unit signals. An operationof the parsing unit 120 will be described in detail below with referenceto FIGS. 2A and 2B.

The pattern obtaining unit 130 obtains a pattern related to thebiosignal based on the first unit signal extracted by the parsing unit120. Hereinafter, the pattern related to the biosignal will be referredto as the “biosignal pattern.”

The pattern obtaining unit 130 may determine whether a patterncorresponding to the waveform of the first unit signal is generated. Thepattern obtaining unit 130 may retrieve the corresponding pattern from astorage space provided in advance when it is determined that the patterncorresponding to the waveform of the first unit signal is generated.

The pattern obtaining unit 130 may newly generate the patterncorresponding to the waveform of the first unit signal when it isdetermined that the pattern corresponding to the waveform of the firstunit signal is yet to be generated. The pattern obtaining unit 130 maygenerate the pattern corresponding to the waveform of the first unitsignal based on the first unit signal and a predetermined number of unitsignals, for example, 8 unit signals.

The pattern obtaining unit 130 may obtain the pattern corresponding tothe waveform of the first unit signal extracted by the parsing unit 120.An operation of the pattern obtaining unit 130 will be described indetail below with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B.

The transmitting unit 140 transmits information related to a featurepoint of the first unit signal based on the first unit signal and thepattern.

The transmitting unit 140 may extract and transmit only the featurepoint of the first unit signal, instead of transmitting the entire firstunit signal. For example, the transmitting unit 140 may detect a peakincluded in the first unit signal, and may transmit an amplitude of thedetected peak, and a position of the detected peak, for example, atemporal position of the detected peak. The biosignal transmitter 100may provide technology for reducing a number of data bits to be used fortransmitting the bio biosignal based on quasi-periodic and deterministiccharacteristics of the biosignal.

Accordingly, the biosignal transmitter 100 may reduce an amount of powerto be consumed for transmitting the biosignal. An operation of thetransmitting unit 140 will be described in detail below with referenceto FIGS. 4A and 4B.

A pattern of a biosignal may differ on an individual basis, and may alsodiffer based on a position of an electrode for measuring the biosignal.The biosignal transmitter 100 may provide technology for generating apersonalized biosignal pattern, and transmitting only a feature point ofa biosignal using the generated biosignal pattern. A biosignal receivermay reconstruct a biosignal using a biosignal pattern and a featurepoint. The biosignal receiver will be described in detail below withreference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation ofa parsing unit. Referring to FIG. 2A, the parsing unit parses abiosignal to extract a first unit signal included in a plurality of unitsignals.

The parsing unit may extract the first unit signal by detectingrespective peaks of the plurality of unit signals and parsing thebiosignal based on positions of the detected peaks.

For example, the biosignal may correspond to an ECG waveform 205 asshown in FIG. 2B. The ECG waveform 205 may be a quasi-periodic signalhaving a repeating pattern of a periodic PQRST waveform.

In 210, the parsing unit detects respective R peaks 215 of a pluralityof unit signals included in the ECG waveform 205. The parsing unit maydetect the R peaks 215 through various preprocessing processes. Theparsing unit may employ preprocessing processes known to one of ordinaryskill in the art, such as a low-pass filter (LPF), a high-pass filter(HPF), a comb filter, a differentiator, and a squaring circuit.

In 220, the parsing unit calculates a distance between adjacent R peaks,for example, an R-peak to R-peak interval (RRI). The parsing unit mayextract an amplitude and a position of the R peak 215. The position ofthe R peak 215 may refer to a temporal position of the R peak 215, andmay include a position on an X axis in the graphs of FIG. 2B. Theparsing unit may calculate the RRI by calculating a difference between aposition of the R peak 215 and a position of a previous R peak on the Xaxis.

In 230, the parsing unit extracts a first unit signal 235 by parsing theECG waveform 205 based on the calculated RRI. The parsing unit mayextract the first unit signal 235 by performing beat parsing in a −RRI/2to a +RRI/2 area based on the R peak 215.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation ofa pattern obtaining unit. Referring to FIG. 3A, the pattern obtainingunit may obtain a biosignal pattern based on a first unit signal.

In 310, the pattern obtaining unit determines whether the biosignalpattern is generated based on the first unit signal. For example, thepattern obtaining unit may obtain a first pattern stored in a storagespace provided in advance, and may determine whether the first patterncorresponds to a waveform of the first unit signal.

When it is determined that the first pattern corresponds to the waveformof the first unit signal, the pattern obtaining unit may determine thatthe biosignal pattern is generated. The pattern obtaining unit maydetermine whether a waveform of a first unit signal currently beinginput is similar to a prestored first pattern, using a waveformcomparing scheme, for example, correlation matching, or other matchingscheme. When a correlation between the first unit signal and the firstpattern is greater than or equal to a predetermined correlationthreshold value, the pattern obtaining unit may determine that the firstpattern corresponds to the waveform of the first unit signal, and maydetermine that the biosignal pattern is generated.

When it is determined that the biosignal pattern is generated, thepattern obtaining unit may obtain a pre-generated biosignal pattern.When it is determined that the biosignal pattern is generated, thepattern obtaining unit may obtain a first pattern 315 stored in theprovided storage space, as the biosignal pattern.

Conversely, when the first pattern fails to correspond to the waveformof the first unit signal, the pattern obtaining unit may determine thatthe biosignal pattern is yet to be generated. When the correlationbetween the first unit signal and the first pattern is lower than thepredetermined correlation threshold value, the pattern obtaining unitmay determine that the first pattern fails to correspond to the waveformof the first unit signal, and may determine that the biosignal patternis yet to be generated.

A case in which the first pattern fails to correspond to the waveform ofthe first unit signal may include a case in which reconstructing thefirst unit signal using the first pattern is impossible. For example,when a user utilizing a biosignal transmitter is changed, or when a partfor measuring a biosignal is changed, the prestored first pattern mayfail to correspond to the waveform of the first unit signal being input.

In addition, when the first pattern is absent in the provided storagespace, the pattern obtaining unit may determine that the biosignalpattern is yet to be generated. When the biosignal transmitter is usedinitially, the prestored first pattern may be absent.

In 320, the pattern obtaining unit generates the biosignal pattern whenit is determined that the biosignal pattern is yet to be generated.Referring to FIG. 3B, the pattern obtaining unit may generate abiosignal pattern 325, by receiving, from a parsing unit, apredetermined number of unit signals, for example, 8 unit signals, andcalculating an average of the received unit signals.

Respective waveforms of the predetermined number of the unit signals,for example, the 8 unit signals, may correspond to a normal beatpattern. The pattern obtaining unit may perform correlation matchingwith respect to the predetermined number of the unit signals, forexample, the 8 unit signals, and may calculate the average of the unitsignals when it is determined that waveforms of the unit signals aresimilar.

As another example, the pattern obtaining unit may sense that an inputsignal is stabilized. When it is sensed that the input signal isstabilized, the pattern obtaining unit may perform the operationsdescribed above. Accordingly, when the input signal is unstable, thepattern obtaining unit may prevent successive generation of biosignalpatterns. For example, when an electrode for measuring a biosignal isattached improperly, although the biosignal transmitter is turned on, apattern of the biosignal to be input for each period may be changedcontinuously. The pattern obtaining unit may perform an operation, forexample, an operation of verifying whether a generated pattern ispresent, after the input signal is stabilized, thereby preventinggeneration of an unnecessary biosignal pattern.

As still another example, the pattern obtaining unit may be unresponsiveto an input of an abnormal pattern, as opposed to a normal pattern, bysensing that the input signal is stabilized. The pattern obtaining unitmay distinguish a case in which a biosignal pattern being input ischanged due to a change of a user or a change in a position at which thebiosignal is measured from a case in which the biosignal pattern ischanged due to an occurrence of the abnormal pattern. In the case inwhich the biosignal pattern being input is changed due to the change ofthe user or the change in the position at which the biosignal ismeasured, the pattern obtaining unit may generate a new biosignalpattern. Conversely, when the biosignal pattern is changed due to theoccurrence of the abnormal pattern, the pattern obtaining unit may notgenerate the new biosignal pattern.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating an example of an operation ofa transmitting unit. Referring to FIG. 4A, in 410, the transmitting unitdetermines whether a biosignal pattern is newly generated by a patternobtaining unit. When it is determined that the biosignal pattern isnewly generated by the pattern obtaining unit, the transmitting unit maytransmit the newly generated biosignal pattern 415.

In 420, the transmitting unit calculates a correlation between a firstunit signal extracted by a parsing unit and the biosignal patternobtained by the pattern obtaining unit, and determines whether thecalculated correlation is greater than or equal to a predeterminedthreshold value, for example, 0.9.

When it is determined that the calculated correlation is lower than thepredetermined threshold value, for example, 0.9, the transmitting unitmay transmit a first unit signal 425. For example, when an abnormalpattern, as opposed to a normal pattern, is sensed, the transmittingunit may transmit the abnormal pattern. In a case of a patient having aheart disease, an abnormal heart disease pattern, for example, anarrhythmia pattern, may occur. In this case, the transmitting unit maytransmit the heart disease abnormal pattern when the abnormal heartdisease pattern occurs. When an abnormal pattern is sensed, thetransmitting unit may transmit the abnormal pattern, rather thanextracting a feature point of the abnormal pattern, thereby increasingan accuracy of the measured biosignal.

Conversely, when it is determined that the calculated correlation isgreater than or equal to the predetermined threshold value, for example,0.9, the transmitting unit extracts a feature point of the first unitsignal in 430. The transmitting unit may transmit information related tothe extracted feature point 435. The case in which the correlationbetween the first unit signal and the biosignal pattern is greater thanor equal to the predetermined threshold value, for example, 0.9, mayinclude a case in which reconstructing the first unit signal using thebiosignal pattern and the feature point is possible.

The information related to the feature point 435 may include anamplitude and a position of a peak included in the first unit signal.The transmitting unit may extract the peak of the first unit signal, andmay extract an amplitude and a position of the extracted peak as theinformation related to the feature point 435. For example, when thebiosignal corresponds to an ECG waveform, the transmitting unit mayextract an R peak of the first unit signal, and may transmit anamplitude and a position of the extracted R peak. Accordingly, when anormal pattern is sensed, the transmitting unit may transmit only theinformation related to the feature point 435, thereby reducing a numberof bits to be used for transmitting the biosignal, and reducing anamount of power to be consumed for transmitting the biosignal.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a biosignalreceiver 500. Referring to FIG. 5, the biosignal receiver 500 includes areceiving unit 510, a determining unit 520, a pattern obtaining unit530, and a unit signal reconstructing unit 540.

The receiving unit 510 receives a reception signal related to abiosignal including a plurality of unit signals. The determining unit520 determines a type of the reception signal.

The type of the reception signal may include any one or any combinationof a first type, a second type, and a third type. A reception signal ofthe first type may include information related to a feature point of afirst unit signal included in the plurality of unit signals. A receptionsignal of the second type may include a biosignal pattern. A receptionsignal of the third type may include a second unit signal included inthe plurality of unit signals.

When a feature point is extracted by a biosignal transmitter, a signalof the first type may be transmitted. When a biosignal pattern is newlygenerated by the biosignal transmitter, a signal of the second type maybe transmitted. When an abnormal pattern is sensed by the biosignaltransmitter, a signal of the third type may be transmitted.

The pattern obtaining unit 530 obtains a biosignal pattern from astorage space 560 provided in advance when the determining unit 520determines that the type of the reception signal corresponds to thefirst type. In this example, the unit signal reconstructing unit 540reconstructs the first unit signal based on the biosignal pattern andthe information related to the feature point of the first unit signal.

For example, the information related to the feature point of the firstunit signal may include an amplitude and a position of an R peakincluded in the first unit signal. The unit signal reconstructing unit540 may reconstruct the first unit signal by matching an R peak of thebiosignal pattern to the position of the R peak, and adjusting anamplitude of the biosignal pattern based on the amplitude of the R peak.

The biosignal receiver 500 further includes a pattern storing unit 550.The pattern storing unit 550 stores the biosignal pattern in theprovided storage space 560 when the determining unit 520 determines thatthe type of the reception signal corresponds to the second type.

The biosignal receiver 500 further includes a unit signal obtaining unit570. The unit signal obtaining unit 570 obtains the second unit signalfrom the determining unit 520 when the determining unit 520 determinesthat the type of the reception signal corresponds to the third type. Thesecond unit signal may include an abnormal pattern sensed by thebiosignal transmitter.

The biosignal receiver 500 further includes a biosignal reconstructingunit 580. The biosignal reconstructing unit 580 reconstructs thebiosignal based on the first unit signal reconstructed by the unitsignal reconstructing unit 540 and the second unit signal obtained bythe unit signal obtaining unit 570.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation of abiosignal receiver. Referring to FIG. 6, a biosignal transmittertransmits a signal 620 of a first type, a signal 625 of a second type,and a signal 630 of a third type based on a biosignal 610.

The biosignal receiver performs an operation of reconstructing abiosignal based on a type of a reception signal. The biosignal receivermay store a biosignal pattern in a storage space provided in advancewhen it is determined that the reception signal corresponds to thesignal 625 of the second type including the biosignal pattern.

In addition, the biosignal receiver reconstructs a first unit signalusing information related to a feature point of the first unit signaland the biosignal pattern stored in the provided storage space when itis determined that the reception signal corresponds to the signal 620 ofthe first type including the information related to the feature point ofthe first unit signal. The signal 620 of the first type may include anamplitude and a position of an R peak included in the first unit signal.As described above with reference to FIG. 5, the biosignal receiver mayreconstruct the first unit signal by adjusting an amplitude and aposition of the biosignal pattern using the amplitude and the positionof the R peak.

Further, the biosignal receiver obtains a second unit signal when it isdetermined that the reception signal corresponds to the signal 630 ofthe third type including the second unit signal. The biosignal receivermay reconstruct a biosignal 640 using the first unit signal and thesecond unit signal. For example, the biosignal receiver may reconstructthe biosignal 640 by connecting the first unit signal with the secondunit signal based on a position of the first unit signal and a positionof the second unit signal.

Referring to Table 1 below, the biosignal transmitter may definitelyreduce a number of data bits to be used for transmitting a biosignal.The biosignal to be transferred may be an ECG waveform, a sampling rateof the ECG waveform may be 250 hertz (Hz), and a single sample mayconsist of 2 bytes.

A size of a biosignal pattern may be changed based on a heart rate perminute. However, when it is assumed that the heart rate per minute is 60beats per minute (beats/min), the size of the biosignal pattern may be500 bytes. When the heart rate per minute corresponds to 60 beats/min,the heart may beat once per second. With the sampling rate of 250 Hz,the biosignal transmitter may perform data sampling 250 times for asingle heart beat. Since the single sample consists of 2 bytes, the sizeof the biosignal pattern may be 500 bytes.

In addition, an amplitude and a position of an R peak corresponding toinformation related to a feature point may consist of 3 bytes.

TABLE 1 Pattern (HR = 60) + TX Original Pattern Pattern to originalAbnormal waveform Pattern to original time signal (HR = 60) signal ratio(Probability of 10%) signal ratio  1 sec  500 Bytes 500 Bytes  100% 500Bytes  100%  1 min   30 kBytes 680 Bytes = 2.26% 5.6 kBytes = 18.7%500 + 60 * 3 500 + 50 * 3 + 10 * 500  1 hr  1.8 MBytes 11.3 kBytes =0.62% 190 kBytes = 10.5% 500 + 3600 * 3 500 + 3240 * 3 + 360 * 500 24hrs 43.2 MBytes 259.7 kBytes = 0.60% 4.5 MBytes = 10.4% 500 + 86400 * 3500 + 77760 * 3 + 8640 * 500

The three columns on the left side of Table 1 indicate a pattern tooriginal signal ratio for a case in which only information related to afeature point is transmitted due to an abnormal pattern beingundetected. It may be verified that the pattern to original signal ratiodecreases below 1% as a transmission time increases.

Further, the three columns on the right side of Table 1 may indicate apattern to original signal ratio for a case in which an abnormal patternis detected with a probability of 10%. It may be verified that thepattern to original signal ratio converges to 10% corresponding to theprobability with which the abnormal pattern is detected.

The biosignal transmitter and the biosignal receiver may be applied to aubiquitous healthcare (U-healthcare) service. Hereinafter, it may beassumed that an ECG waveform corresponding to a representative of aheart function signal may be transmitted. However, it will be apparentto one of ordinary skill in the art that the identical scheme may beapplied to a pulse wave, a photoplethysmography (PPG) signal, and otherbiosignals.

A user of the U-health service may measure a variety of healthinformation by wearing a wearable terminal. The wearable terminal maytransmit the measured health information to a server through a gatewayterminal at home, or a wireless gateway terminal, for example, acellular phone or other device capable of operating as a wirelessgateway terminal. The server may store the received health information,and may provide a health information service for the user to retrieveand analyze the health information in real time or in an off-linemanner.

The biosignal transmitter may be provided in a wearable form, and mayhave super-light and super-small characteristics for a user'sconvenience. The biosignal transmitter may generate a personalizedpattern of an ECG waveform repeated periodically, and may transmit thegenerated pattern and a beat feature point of the ECG signal for eachindividual, thereby reducing an amount of power to be consumed fortransmitting the ECG waveform. Accordingly, the biosignal transmittermay provide technology satisfying such super-light and super-smallcharacteristics within a limited battery capacity.

The biosignal transmitter 100, the biosignal obtaining unit 110, theparsing unit 120, the pattern obtaining unit 130, and the transmittingunit 140 illustrated in FIG. 1 that perform the operations illustratedin FIGS. 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A, and 4B and the biosignal receiver 500, thereceiving unit 510, the determining unit 520, the pattern obtaining unit530, the unit signal reconstructing unit 540, the pattern storing unit550, the storage space 560, the unit signal obtaining unit 570, and thebiosignal reconstructing unit 580 illustrated in FIG. 5 that perform theoperations illustrated in FIG. 6 may be implemented using one or morehardware components, one or more software components, or a combinationof one or more hardware components and one or more software components.

A hardware component may be, for example, a physical device thatphysically performs one or more operations, but is not limited thereto.Examples of hardware components include resistors, capacitors,inductors, power supplies, frequency generators, operational amplifiers,power amplifiers, low-pass filters, high-pass filters, band-passfilters, analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters, andprocessing devices.

A software component may be implemented, for example, by a processingdevice controlled by software or instructions to perform one or moreoperations, but is not limited thereto. A computer, controller, or othercontrol device may cause the processing device to run the software orexecute the instructions. One software component may be implemented byone processing device, or two or more software components may beimplemented by one processing device, or one software component may beimplemented by two or more processing devices, or two or more softwarecomponents may be implemented by two or more processing devices.

A processing device may be implemented using one or more general-purposeor special-purpose computers, such as, for example, a processor, acontroller and an arithmetic logic unit, a digital signal processor, amicrocomputer, a field-programmable array, a programmable logic unit, amicroprocessor, or any other device capable of running software orexecuting instructions. The processing device may run an operatingsystem (OS), and may run one or more software applications that operateunder the OS. The processing device may access, store, manipulate,process, and create data when running the software or executing theinstructions. For simplicity, the singular term “processing device” maybe used in the description, but one of ordinary skill in the art willappreciate that a processing device may include multiple processingelements and multiple types of processing elements. For example, aprocessing device may include one or more processors, or one or moreprocessors and one or more controllers. In addition, differentprocessing configurations are possible, such as parallel processors ormulti-core processors.

A processing device configured to implement a software component toperform an operation A may include a processor programmed to runsoftware or execute instructions to control the processor to performoperation A. In addition, a processing device configured to implement asoftware component to perform an operation A, an operation B, and anoperation C may have various configurations, such as, for example, aprocessor configured to implement a software component to performoperations A, B, and C; a first processor configured to implement asoftware component to perform operation A, and a second processorconfigured to implement a software component to perform operations B andC; a first processor configured to implement a software component toperform operations A and B, and a second processor configured toimplement a software component to perform operation C; a first processorconfigured to implement a software component to perform operation A, asecond processor configured to implement a software component to performoperation B, and a third processor configured to implement a softwarecomponent to perform operation C; a first processor configured toimplement a software component to perform operations A, B, and C, and asecond processor configured to implement a software component to performoperations A, B, and C, or any other configuration of one or moreprocessors each implementing one or more of operations A, B, and C.Although these examples refer to three operations A, B, C, the number ofoperations that may implemented is not limited to three, but may be anynumber of operations required to achieve a desired result or perform adesired task.

Software or instructions for controlling a processing device toimplement a software component may include a computer program, a pieceof code, an instruction, or some combination thereof, for independentlyor collectively instructing or configuring the processing device toperform one or more desired operations. The software or instructions mayinclude machine code that may be directly executed by the processingdevice, such as machine code produced by a compiler, and/or higher-levelcode that may be executed by the processing device using an interpreter.The software or instructions and any associated data, data files, anddata structures may be embodied permanently or temporarily in any typeof machine, component, physical or virtual equipment, computer storagemedium or device, or a propagated signal wave capable of providinginstructions or data to or being interpreted by the processing device.The software or instructions and any associated data, data files, anddata structures also may be distributed over network-coupled computersystems so that the software or instructions and any associated data,data files, and data structures are stored and executed in a distributedfashion.

For example, the software or instructions and any associated data, datafiles, and data structures may be recorded, stored, or fixed in one ormore non-transitory computer-readable storage media. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium may be any data storage device that iscapable of storing the software or instructions and any associated data,data files, and data structures so that they can be read by a computersystem or processing device. Examples of a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium include read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), flash memory, CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD+Rs, CD-RWs,CD+RWs, DVD-ROMs, DVD-Rs, DVD+Rs, DVD-RWs, DVD+RWs, DVD-RAMs, BD-ROMs,BD-Rs, BD-R LTHs, BD-REs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, magneto-opticaldata storage devices, optical data storage devices, hard disks,solid-state disks, or any other non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium known to one of ordinary skill in the art.

Functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing theexamples disclosed herein can be easily constructed by a programmerskilled in the art to which the examples pertain based on the drawingsand their corresponding descriptions as provided herein.

While this disclosure includes specific examples, it will be apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form anddetails may be made in these examples without departing from the spiritand scope of the claims and their equivalents. The examples describedherein are to be considered in a descriptive sense only, and not forpurposes of limitation. Descriptions of features or aspects in eachexample are to be considered as being applicable to similar features oraspects in other examples. Suitable results may be achieved if thedescribed techniques are performed in a different order, and/or ifcomponents in a described system, architecture, device, or circuit arecombined in a different manner and/or replaced or supplemented by othercomponents or their equivalents. Therefore, the scope of the disclosureis defined not by the detailed description, but by the claims and theirequivalents, and all variations within the scope of the claims and theirequivalents are to be construed as being included in the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A biosignal transmitter comprising: a biosignalobtaining unit configured to obtain a biosignal comprising a pluralityof unit signals; a parsing unit configured to parse the biosignal toextract a first unit signal of the plurality of unit signals; a patternobtaining unit configured to obtain a pattern related to the biosignalbased on the first unit signal; and a transmitting unit configured totransmit information related to a feature point of the first unit signalbased on the first unit signal and the pattern.
 2. The biosignaltransmitter of claim 1, wherein the parsing unit is further configuredto extract the first unit signal by detecting respective peaks of theplurality of unit signals, and parsing the biosignal based on positionsof the peaks.
 3. The biosignal transmitter of claim 1, wherein thepattern obtaining unit comprises: a determining unit configured todetermine whether the pattern is generated based on the first unitsignal; an obtaining unit configured to obtain the pattern in responseto a determination that the pattern is generated; and a generating unitconfigured to generate the pattern in response to the determining unitdetermining that that the pattern is yet to be generated.
 4. Thebiosignal transmitter of claim 3, wherein the determining unit isfurther configured to: obtain a first pattern stored in a storage spaceprovided in advance; determine whether the first pattern corresponds toa waveform of the first unit signal; and determine that the pattern isgenerated in response to the determining unit determining that the firstpattern corresponds to the waveform of the first unit signal; and theobtaining unit is further configured to obtain the first pattern as thepattern.
 5. The biosignal transmitter of claim 3, wherein the generatingunit is further configured to: receive a predetermined number of unitsignals from the parsing unit; and calculate an average of thepredetermined number of the unit signals to generate the pattern.
 6. Thebiosignal transmitter of claim 1, wherein the transmitting unit isfurther configured to: calculate a correlation between the first unitsignal and the pattern; extract the feature point in response to thecorrelation being greater than or equal to a predetermined thresholdvalue; and transmit the information related to the feature point.
 7. Thebiosignal transmitter of claim 6, wherein the transmitting unit isfurther configured to transmit the first unit signal in response to thecorrelation being lower than the predetermined threshold value.
 8. Thebiosignal transmitter of claim 1, wherein the transmitting unit isfurther configured to transmit the pattern in response to the patternbeing newly generated by the pattern obtaining unit to obtain thepattern.
 9. The biosignal transmitter of claim 1, wherein theinformation related to the feature point comprises an amplitude and aposition of a peak in the first unit signal.
 10. The biosignaltransmitter of claim 1, wherein the biosignal has a periodicity, theplurality of unit signals comprise the first unit signal and a secondunit signal, and a waveform of the first unit signal and a waveform ofthe second unit signal are classified as an identical pattern.
 11. Thebiosignal transmitter of claim 1, wherein the biosignal comprises anelectrocardiogram (ECG), and the pattern depends on a position of anelectrode configured to measure the ECG.
 12. A biosignal receivercomprising: a receiving unit configured to receive a reception signalrelated to a biosignal comprising a plurality of unit signals; adetermining unit configured to determine a type of the reception signal;a pattern obtaining unit configured to obtain a pattern related to thebiosignal from a storage space provided in advance in response to thedetermining unit determining that the type of the reception signal is afirst type of reception signal; and a unit signal reconstructing unitconfigured to reconstruct a first unit signal of the plurality of unitsignals based on the pattern and information related to a feature pointof the first unit, signal; wherein the reception signal determined to bethe first type of reception signal comprises the information related tothe feature point of the first unit signal.
 13. The biosignal receiverof claim 12, further comprising a pattern storing unit configured tostore the pattern related to the biosignal in the storage space inresponse to the determining unit determining that the type of thereception signal is a second type of reception signal; wherein thereception signal determined to be the second type of reception signalcomprises the pattern related to the biosignal.
 14. The biosignalreceiver of claim 12, further comprising a unit signal obtaining unitconfigured to obtain a second unit signal of the plurality of unitsignals in response to the determining unit determining that the type ofthe reception signal is a third type of reception signal; wherein thereception signal determined to be the third type of reception signalcomprises the second unit signal.
 15. The biosignal receiver of claim14, further comprising a biosignal reconstructing unit configured toreconstruct the biosignal based on the first unit signal and the secondunit signal.
 16. A biosignal transmitting method comprising: extractinga signal from a biosignal; obtaining a biosignal pattern based on thesignal; determining a similarity between the signal and the biosignalpattern; obtaining information related to the signal based on the signaland the biosignal pattern and transmitting the information related tothe signal in response to the similarity being greater than apredetermined threshold; and transmitting the signal in response to thesimilarity being less than the predetermined threshold.
 17. The methodof claim 16, wherein the transmitting of the information related to thesignal requires transmitting a smaller amount of data than thetransmitting of the signal.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein theobtaining of the biosignal pattern comprises: determining whether thesignal corresponds to a predetermined biosignal pattern; obtaining thepredetermined biosignal pattern as the obtained biosignal pattern inresponse to a result of the determining being that the signalcorresponds to the predetermined biosignal pattern; and generating a newbiosignal pattern as the obtained biosignal pattern in response to aresult of the determining being that the signal does not correspond tothe predetermined biosignal pattern; and the method further comprisestransmitting the new biosignal pattern.
 19. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing a program for controlling acomputer to perform the method of claim 16.